Ambush by the Sword Sect, a True Battlefield of Flesh and Blood!

Buzz—!!!

That streak of azure sword light tore across the sky, giving no one on the flying boat any time to react!

Before the sword light even arrived, the black light screen that First Senior Brother Guo Fan had roared and unfurled at the bow was already being pressed into frantic distortion by that matchlessly sharp sword intent!

"Enemy attack!"

At the bow, First Senior Brother Guo Fan let out a thunderous roar, his voice booming like a great bell!

The vigorous spiritual power of his Foundation Establishment Late Stage cultivation surged from him like an erupting volcano, shooting into the sky. A dense wave of spiritual power burst out from his body and instantly fused into the flying boat's defensive light screen!

At the same time, Third Senior Brother Shi Lei, Fourth Senior Sister Han Shuang, and several other Foundation Establishment Realm experts did not hesitate either. Each drove their spiritual power and poured their own strength into the defensive light screen spread over the hull!

In an instant, the black light screen grew even more solid, and countless ghostly shadows even surfaced upon it, giving soundless roars.

However, before that azure sword light, all of this still seemed so fragile.

Boom!!!

A deafening crash rang out, and heaven and earth lost their color!

The azure sword light slammed head-on into the black light screen!

They were locked in a stalemate for less than a single breath!

Crack—crack, crack—

Spiderweb-like fissures spread wildly across the black light screen at a speed visible to the naked eye!

Guo Fan, who bore the brunt of it, had his ordinary face flush red for the first time, and he let out a muffled groan.

In the next instant, the light screen shattered with a crash!

The flying boat gave an overwhelmed groan. Its massive hull tilted violently, completely losing control as it plunged headfirst toward the vast Soul-Severing Plain below!

"Ah—!"

The boat instantly descended into chaos.

Countless disciples lost their footing amid the violent tilt, were flung viciously into the air, then smashed heavily back onto the deck. More than a dozen were thrown straight out of the flying boat, turning into black dots that vanished below.

The moment the flying boat went out of control, Zhao Hao grabbed tightly onto a protruding bone spike beside him, pressed his body as low as possible, and stabilized himself.

His eyes locked firmly onto the endless blood-colored plain below.

Rumble—!

Another earth-shaking crash rang out as the flying boat's enormous hull smashed hard into the solid ground, half its bow sinking deep into the earth.

The huge impact made Zhao Hao's blood and qi churn, but he had no time to care. With a roll, he leapt down from the hull.

Before he could steady himself.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The Heavenly Sword Sect disciples, who had long been waiting below, numbered in the hundreds. Forming one sharp small-scale Three Talents Sword Formation after another, they charged in from all directions!

Sword light wove into a net, cold and lethal!

"Enemy attack!!"

"Fight them to the death!"

The Extreme Yin Sect disciples scrambled up in a hurry, each fighting on their own, chaotically releasing their Corpse Refining puppets and magic artifacts to meet the enemy.

In a single exchange, more than ten Extreme Yin Sect disciples were cut down by the fierce sword light, their blood dyeing the soil of the Soul-Severing Plain red.

Zhao Hao had just landed when an icy killing intent locked onto him.

"A fourth-layer Qi Refining demonic brat. Die!"

A seventh-layer Qi Refining Heavenly Sword Sect disciple with a face full of murderous aura flicked the long sword in his hand, turning it into a streak of flowing light that stabbed straight at Zhao Hao's heart.

Zhao Hao's pupils shrank. The perfected Light Body Art beneath his feet had already become instinct. He fell backward in alarm, twisting his body into a strange posture, his entire person skimming along the ground as he narrowly slid away by a hair's breadth.

The sword light nearly brushed past the tip of his nose!

Ignoring his appearance, he rolled using both hands and feet, then directly darted behind the remains of a Corpse Refining puppet that had just been slain, looking utterly wretched.

That sword cultivator gave a soft "huh," clearly not expecting this trash to have such good luck.

He was just about to add another sword strike, but another Demonic Sect disciple who charged over tangled him up, leaving him unable to break free for the moment.

Zhao Hao hid behind the Corpse Refining puppet, "panting" violently, while in truth he had long since pushed his perfected Qi Gazing Art to its limit.

The entire battlefield transformed in his eyes into a world made up of countless clusters of qi.

The Heavenly Sword Sect disciples' qi clusters were sharp and pure, with faint connections between one another, forming an invisible great net.

On the Extreme Yin Sect's side, however, the qi clusters were mixed and chaotic; yin qi, corpse qi, and blood qi were all tangled together without any order.

Just then, he saw with his own eyes an eighth-layer Qi Refining senior brother of the Extreme Yin Sect being besieged by three seventh-layer Qi Refining sword cultivators in formation.

As three streaks of sword light circulated, that senior brother's protective magic artifact shattered instantly, and his entire body was sliced by the sword net into more than a dozen chunks of flesh!

What was horrifying was that the instant that senior brother died, not only did the qi cluster representing his vitality go out, even the soul that dispersed from him had no time to escape before it was completely ground to pieces by the invisible power of the sword formation, turning into nothingness!

His soul nearly flew apart!

Zhao Hao only felt a chill rush from the soles of his feet straight to the crown of his head.

This was not war at all. This was a gigantic millstone of flesh and blood! If he stayed here, enemies lay in every direction!

He hesitated no longer and continued playing the coward scared out of his wits. On the chaotic battlefield, he screamed in terror, "Don't kill me!" while scrambling on hands and feet toward the edge of the battlefield.

His movements looked like he was panicking with no way out, yet each time he narrowly slipped through the gaps between attacks. To outsiders, this kid was simply stepping in dogshit luck, his life impossibly tough.

Finally, he scraped his way to the edge of one part of the battlefield.

Not far away, a refined corpse was detonated, kicking up a massive cloud of dust and chaos.

Now!

Zhao Hao seized the timing and, without the slightest hesitation, poured the spiritual energy in his body into both feet!

Perfected-level Earth Escape Art!

Under the cover of the chaos, his body made not the slightest sound as it sank straight into the hard ground beneath his feet, vanishing completely from the battlefield.

Zhao Hao did not dare pause for even a moment underground. In one breath, he escaped ten li in the direction away from the battlefield.

Only when less than half the spiritual energy in his dantian remained did he quietly emerge from behind the huge trunk of a tree in a secluded mountain forest.

"Huff... huff..."

He leaned against the tree trunk, his face pale, gasping for breath in great gulps, his whole body soaked through with sweat.

However, before he could even steady that breath—

"Hee hee... this little brat from the Demonic Sect is rather clever. He runs pretty fast too!"

A woman's laugh, clear and pleasant yet carrying a hint of mockery, came without warning from overhead not far away.

Immediately after came another woman's voice, filled with bone-deep hatred.

"Don't let him go! My elder sister died miserably at the hands of Demonic Sect disciples. Not one of them is anything good!"

Zhao Hao's body stiffened, and he abruptly looked up!

On a thick branch twenty zhang away stood two women in white.

The one in the lead had an ethereal bearing and was watching him with keen interest. She was astonishingly a cultivator at the perfected Qi Refining stage!

And the woman beside her, her face full of hatred, also had the cultivation of someone newly entered the ninth level of Qi Refining.

Zhao Hao did not even have time to say a single word.

Killing intent flashed in the eyes of the woman at the ninth level of Qi Refining. She gave him no chance at all!

A flying sword gleaming with cold light was directly driven by her. Like a bolt of white lightning, it tore through the air and shot fiercely toward Zhao Hao's heart!